State and Local

SALEM, Ore., — April 26, 2014 -– The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission set the 2014 sport and commercial halibut seasons during its meeting today in North Bend.

The Pacific halibut seasons set are concurrent with those adopted by the International Pacific Halibut Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Oregon anglers will notice changes that effect sport fisheries

• In the Columbia River subarea, the open days will be Thursday through Sunday during the all-depth season – an expansion of the Friday through Sunday open days last year.

• Also in the Columbia River subarea, a nearshore fishery has been established to allow more groundfish anglers to retain incidental catches of halibut.

• In the Central Coast subarea, the nearshore fishery will start July 1 and be open seven days a week.

Read the full story at The Dalles Chronicle 

 

 

 

April 25, 2014 — The Copper River, Alaska fishing season — which kicks off the start of the Alaska salmon season — is tentatively scheduled to open on 15 May.

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) will announce the actual opening date on 5 May.

ADF&G is predicting the 2014 sockeye salmon catch will be around 1.8 million fish, while the king salmon catch will be about 33,000 fish.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

YARMOUTH, Maine — April 25, 2014 — The number of baby lobsters settling off the rocky coast of Maine continues to steadily decline — possibly foreshadowing an end to the recent record catches that have boosted New England’s lobster fishery, scientists say.

A University of Maine survey of 11 Gulf of Maine locations indicates that young lobsters have declined by more than half of their 2007 levels — significant since lobsters typically take about eight years to reach the legal harvesting size.

The downward trend has lobstermen, retailers, state officials, and ocean scientists concerned that the impact could soon be felt on dinner tables nationwide. Maine lobsters were 85 percent of the nation’s lobster catch in 2012.

Warmer ocean temperatures, pollution, atmospheric conditions and changes in predation and availability of food could all be to blame, say scientists, state officials and industry leaders. Lobsters are very sensitive to even subtle changes in temperature, scientists say.

Maine Department of Marine Resources officials say the decline does not appear to be the product of overfishing as some environmental groups contend.

Read the full story at The Washington Post 

 

 

JUNEAU, Alaska — April 24, 2014 — The Alaska State Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Senator Peter Micciche (R-Soldotna). SB71 does three primary things for commercial fishing families in Alaska. The bill provides a fair system for fishermen to use to pay landing taxes to the State, it continues and expands value-added tax credits for fishermen and processors always looking to adapt to a rapidly-evolving seafood marketplace and it provides credits for upgrades likely to result in a greater proportion of Alaskans being employed in the seafood industry.

The bill repairs glitches in the landing resource tax statutes and regulations which cause the payment of unfair penalties and interest by well-intentioned commercial fishermen. Currently the resource landing tax is due March 31st. However, the statewide average fish price report calculated by the Department of Fish and Game is not always published by that date. SB71 aligns the due date of the tax with the date that the report is released.

“As a commercial fisherman and a Senator from a coastal district, I understand the confusion and frustration caused by the current statutes,” said Senator Micciche. “This measure will allow fishing families to do what they do best -spend time fishing and not wasting time on inefficient and unfair government regulations that provide no value.”

The current statute also includes provisions for equal quarterly payments. Many Alaska fishermen and fisheries only operate in one of the four quarters. Considering the seasonal nature of many fisheries and the variability in harvest, it is virtually impossible for resource landing taxpayers to accurately predict their full year’s harvest for equal payments. With the passage of this legislation, fishermen can choose from three different methods to make their estimated landing tax payments in better alignment with their particular fishery.

 “SB71 allows fishermen to pay their landing taxes in accordance with a schedule that coincides with the quarters when the actual fishing occurred. It provides the same landing tax revenue quantity to the state, yet eliminates unfair fees and fines for lateness that was beyond the control of Alaska’s fishermen,” said Senator Micciche.

The bill also extends and expands the Alaska Salmon Product Development Tax Credit that is widely credited as a major factor of significantly increasing the commercial value of Alaska salmon over the past few years. There have been positive trends since this bill was originally enacted in 2003, including product diversity, increased state revenues from the fisheries business tax and increased permit prices.

Read the full story at Alaska Business Monthly

April 24, 2014 — Bristol Bay’s massive commercial sockeye fishery is still a couple of months away but preparations for the fishery are ongoing. A representative with the U.S. Coast Guard flew into Dillingham last week to brief commercial fishermen about what to expect this season. KDLG’s Mike Mason was there and filed this report.

Listen to the story at KDLG

 

NEW BEDFORD, Mass., — April 24, 2014  — Hoping to continue New Bedford Harbor's legacy as a port of diverse industries, the US Economic Development Administration announced Wednesday at $200,000 grant help plan the waterfront's future.

The grant, which will be matched by the city, is meant to ensure that New Bedford's historic industries like fishing can coexist with the offshore wind industry that officials hope will be the city's future.

"We are the number one fishing port, and we intend to maintain that, but there is much more ahead of us in the future if we plan it right," Mayor Jon Mitchell said. "We don't want to put all our eggs in one basket; our strategy is all of the above."

"We are the number one fishing port, and we intend to maintain that, but there is much more ahead of us in the future if we plan it right," Mayor Jon Mitchell said. "We don't want to put all our eggs in one basket; our strategy is all of the above."

The federal investment will allow the development of a master and urban renewal plan for the working waterfront. The plan aims to envision what and where development is needed over the course of the next ten to fifteen years.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times 

 

 

April 24, 2014 — After three years of record numbers for lobster hauls off of the coast of Maine, scientists are reporting that the population of young lobster has declined over 50% of their 2007 levels, which could significantly affect the market.

According to researchers at the University of Maine, the young lobster population decline was documented in 11 Gulf of Maine locations – a significant statistic that caught the eye of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The last three years featured catches totaling 350 million pounds of lobster, according to state data.

But that's not the reason for the drastic decline in young lobster. Officials are attributing the losses to environmental issues such as warmer ocean temperatures, pollution, atmospheric conditions, and changes in predation and availability of food. Lobsters are particularly sensitive to changes in temperature and pollution is causing shell rot and other illnesses.

University of Maine divers have been tracking lobster populations and settlement rates since the 1980s. The American Lobster Settlement Index is the annual monitoring program of the university that tracks 11 locations in the Gulf of Maine as well as two locations in Canada and three in Massachusetts. All of the locations witnessed a decline this year. The survey now examined over 100 lobster-producing sites.

Read the full story at Science World Report

 

 

April 24, 2014 — Dining in New England doesn’t get more local than eating fish served by the fisherman. And that’s going to be possible tonight at Marciano Commons, Warren Towers, and West Campus from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of Dining Services Meet Your Local Fishermen Night. Many of the people who caught the seafood in the Catch of the Day meal will be on hand to talk about their livelihood. The event is one product of a new partnership between the University and local seafood supplier Red’s Best, which buys only from fishermen operating small day boats from Maine to Rhode Island.

“It’s all about sustainability and supporting local fishermen,” says campus executive chef Christopher Bee.

Sabrina Pashtan, Dining Services sustainability coordinator, toured Red’s Best a couple of years ago, and reached out to CEO Jared “Red” Auerbach to explore a partnership. Their first idea was a weekly Catch of the Day meal, which yields fresh fish for the University and a competitive price for local fishermen. Another selling point was each fish’s traceable QR code, which contains information such as where the fish were caught, who caught them, and the captain’s home port. Dining Services will display the QR code of the fish at each Catch of the Day dining hall station across campus on Thursdays.

“We always tried to do local, but it was often hard to trace,” says Bee, adding that Red’s Best makes it easy to do.

Read the full story at BU Today 

 

April 22, 2014 — The number of baby lobsters settling off the rocky coast of Maine continues to steadily decline – possibly foreshadowing an end to the recent record catches that have boosted New England’s lobster fishery, scientists say.

A University of Maine survey of 11 Gulf of Maine locations suggests that numbers of young lobsters have declined by more than half their 2007 levels – significant since lobsters typically take about eight years to reach the legal harvesting size.

The downward trend has lobstermen, retailers, state officials and ocean scientists concerned that the impact could soon be felt on dinner tables nationwide. Maine lobsters were 85 percent of the nation’s lobster catch in 2012.

Warmer ocean temperatures, pollution, atmospheric conditions and changes in predation and availability of food could all be to blame, say scientists, state officials and industry leaders. Lobsters are very sensitive to even subtle changes in temperature, scientists say.

Maine Department of Marine Resources officials say the decline does not appear to be the product of overfishing, as some environmental groups contend.

The last three years have brought record hauls to Maine’s lobster industry, more than 350 million pounds – by far the most for any three-year period according to state data that go back to 1880. The value of the catch has topped $1 billion for the first time.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

April 22, 2014 — Eight members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation have taken a page out of Gov. Deval Patrick's very thin playbook dedicated to helping the fishermen by penning a letter to the wonderfully alliterative Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker, urging PP to get off the dime and get the $75 million in fishing disaster aid rolling to the affected areas – and on a state-by-state basis rather than regionally.

"While we understand and appreciate the efforts made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since January to find a compromise proposal to disperse the disaster relief funding to Northeast states, there appear to be fundamental differences that will be difficult to reconcile in a regional solution," said the letter dated April 22. "Further delay in disbursing the federal disaster assistance would impose an unacceptable burden on Massachusetts fishermen and fishing-related businesses that have already been waiting years for help in dealing with the commercial fishery failure."

The letter is signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, as well as Reps. John Tierney, Stephen F. Lynch, Niki Tsongas, Joseph P. Kennedy, William R. Keating and Katherine M. Clark. Interestingly, the Western Mass. congressional cousins – Reps. Richard Neal and James McGovern – were non-signatores, as was Rep. Michael Capuano. I guess they don't eat fish west of Worcester or in the urban canyons of Capuano's district.

Just as Patrick mentioned in his letter, the signatores make the case that Massachusetts fishermen have sustained 90 percent of the economic hardship loosed on the Northeast by the fishing disaster and thus should receive a commensurate amount of the nearly $33 million headed to the coastal New England states and New York.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times